n the 2020s, technologies are rapidly developing and evolving. If some tool seemed groundbreaking five years ago, now against the other solutions, it might look outdated. It is connected with the rapid growth of the web development industry and the tendency to improve specific tools continuously.

For the world as a whole, this is a great opportunity for business expansion. But for many firms, it is a stressful situation. Some companies have to keep their finger on the pulse and make quick decisions to catch up with their competitors. In 2010 AngularJS seemed like something fantastic, similar to magic to many devs, but in 2021 most of them started to think about the migration AngularJS to Angular. 

Regardless of many articles about these two technologies and their capabilities, some people still do not see the difference. Of course, there are lots of similarities between these concepts, and understanding the details does not seem obvious. That is why today, I decided to give you more in-depth information on the seven reasons for migration AngularJS to Angular and why it is so crucial.

I'm sure you'll find answers to many of your questions today. So, you can figure out for yourself which of the technologies will suit your product best.

What do we mean by these two solutions?

In this day and time, Angular is a well-known framework that was created for building web applications. So, it is worth considering that it's pretty suitable for either small or bigger applications, it is definitely worth learning and using. As a rule, Angular JS brings us two‑way data binding and automatically lets us see data changes in JavaScript shown on the UI. 

According to German company Statista, Angular ranks fourth among web frameworks in 2021. However, AngularJS is not even in the TOP 10. Worldwide stats is another reason why some people are thinking about the process of migration AngularJS to Angular.

From my perspective, I must say that I was amazed by Angular. As you can see, it has gained support from various developers. They've created many valuable features and updates that make coding even faster. That's an incredible advantage of technology in situations where you don't have time, desire, or energy to make some solutions yourself. 

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Reasons for migration AngularJS to Angular: Let's compare two technologies

Architecture

Angular has a «construction» that is based on a hierarchy of services and components. So, Angular2+ has a component-based architecture, where closely related elements can be stacked to create a module. Why is it cool? In this case, each module can form an independent functional unit.

At the same time, AngularJS has an ideational and controller scope that is relatively fixed and less reusable. Many people say that AngularJS follows the well-known among devs MVC (Model-View-Controller) pattern. As the name makes clear, this architecture includes model (M), view (V), and controller (C). 

You can see some of our case studies. For projects Photobell, Parloo, and Frest we used Angular among other technologies. You can see what came out of this and evaluate the performance of products created with this framework. 

Language

Since AngularJS uses familiar and understandable to most devs JavaScript, it allows the framework to set up various products simply. Even so, despite this advantage of the tool, it has no type-checking function, which means that compile-time errors often go entirely undetected.

Angular, however, is based on the TypeScript programming language. It allows for backward compatibility with JS and guarantees higher security. An even more crucial feature of the framework is that errors during the writing of the source code can be spotted at an early stage.

DOM

Dynamic means or the location of the components in the application is not defined at build time. It means, that it is not used in any Angular template. Instead, the components are instantiated and placed in the application at runtime.

The salary difference between developers is not too big. The average yearly wage for an Angular programmer in the United States is $113,156. At the same time, an AngularJS specialist earns about $110,000 per year. This amount is without considering possible bonuses from employers. 

Speed

It's not a secret that AngularJS is a practical framework. You must admit, AngularJS decreases the development time and effort thanks to features such as 2-way data binding. It is clear from this observation that page load took a considerable amount of time by creating more processing on the client-side. 

I believe that for creating and maintaining large applications quickly and with a better change detection mechanism, Angular 2 offers you a better structure.‍ Sometimes it has a significant impact on why you should start the process of migration AngularJS to Angular.

Read more:

AngularJS Vs Angular Performance Comparison

Data binding

In AngularJS, the expression in curly braces denotes 1-way binding. At the same time, in Angular2+, there is a function called «template reference variables». Using this feature, we can directly access an element. The template reference variable is declared before the ID with a hash/pound symbol (#). Angular2+ is directly using valid HTML DOM element events. As an example, ngClick is now changed to (click). Round brackets (parentheses) are used with the DOM event name to bind events in Angular.

Tooling support

When it comes to tool support, Angular is the apparent champion in this case. Unlike AngularJS, this framework has an official CLI, which you can use to create new projects, maintain them seamlessly, etc. You'll also be able to build optimized bundles for production. I also want to avoid repeating what has been much better and more extensively covered on GitHub. I suggest looking there if you want to gather maximum information about supported tools.

Although many would like to migrate AngularJS to Angular, some still prefer the first version of the framework. According to statistics, websites built with AngularJS are still in the lead in the United States.

It is also important to mention that the Angular framework uses TypeScript instead of JavaScript programming language. And it also supports Visual Studio as an IDE. What does this give us? It speeds up some development cycles, which has a positive impact on future project deliverables and budgets. You can use beneficial tools like Codelyzer for code verification, NgRev for analysis, and Augury for debugging the code you build.

Mobile support

As for the mobile application capabilities, Angular2+ wins, too. Similar to React Native, this tool allows you to build native-like apps for all sorts of mobile platforms. Because it provides both an application layer and a rendering layer, you will be able to render and implement the necessary component for the project. 

Another advantage of this tool is that with Angular2+, you can use Reactive Programming. It somewhat speeds up some processes, allowing the developer to pay more attention to other processes. 

The number of smartphone owners grows every year, so it is important for various projects to focus on this market. In just 4 years, the amount of money spent on apps has almost doubled in all regions.

2 ways of migration AngularJS to Angular

The 1st way of migration AngularJS to Angular is to have hybrid solutions with old AngularJS and new Angular running together.

Pros to this approach

Speed: Get something up and running without untangling legacy code.

Safety: There is no risk of breaking the current live app, since it would be a new code based on the old one. Especially since a developer with no previous exposure to the project was working on it.

Stop legacy development: We stop adding more code to an already unmanageable codebase.

Cons to this approach

Maintaining legacy code: It didn't address feature improvements on existing modules; old modules would still be in AngularJS for an undefined period.

Duplicating parts of the code: Since the new app had to look and feel like the old one in any themes, custom components would have to be written in both places. Besides, some parts of the layout would have to be duplicated in the new app (header, menu, etc.). So, any changes to those components would have to be done in both apps. 

Read more:

Flutter Vs React Native: Which Technology Should You Choose In 2022?

The 2nd way of migration AngularJS to Angular is to have two fully separated applications.‍

Pros to this approach

To be honest, I don't see any significant upside to this decision. Unless you have a small project and the development will not affect the performance of your product in any way.

Cons to this approach

The process can take a long time: Regardless of how well you prepare to write the source code from scratch, you can never be sure of the development timeline. Even detailed documentation and previous developers' experience cannot predict the complexities of the process. If you don't have enough time, this is not the best possible path.

It's risky to make a second app parallel: Your team has to stop some tasks to program a new solution. For some products, this is a cost overrun. In such a situation, you will probably have to use the services of external coders. This solution will cost extra money and is not affordable for all firms.

Wrapping up

Even though it may seem to you that I don't feel too good about AngularJS, it's not true. This technology, despite some nuances, is still actively used by various companies and projects. If the solution was valueless and terrible, no one would be interacting with it by this time.

However, Angular has many more fans, and lots of programmers pay attention to the technology. Each new version of the tool gets new features and benefits, the community grows, and coders have a wider range of opportunities to implement these or those options. 

While AngularJS is slowly being forgotten, Angular2+ remains on the cutting edge and is used very often. Firstly, the framework is faster. Secondly, it provides better security for the final projects, and it is mobile-friendly as well. Another point I should mention necessarily is that it is pretty easy to switch from one version of Angular to another. Much simpler than doing a migration AngularJS to Angular.

Before you decide to do anything, there are a few things you need to understand:

• why you need to do it;
• how much effort will go into the process;
• whether such an action will make your product better;
• what budget you will need.

Only after thorough deliberation and consultation with professionals, I recommend making such a decision. You shouldn't start a process just because someone else is doing it.

If you are looking for a suitable team of Angular devs who can make the process of migration AngularJS to Angular, please, have a look at our services. Our crew is staffed by the best experts with a solid technical background and flawless time management. Give your product a chance to grow even more and make the switch properly.